Copulatory behavior in captive masked palm civets, Paguma larvata

Dewsbury (1972) proposed a classification of copulatory behavior in mammals and to date, 11 of the 16 theoretically possible patterns have been recorded. D i x s o n (1998) modified Dewsbury's original classification and reported four additional copulatory patterns in primates. We studied copulatory patterns in masked palm civets (Paguma larvata larvata) and found an example of one of their expected mammalian copulatory patterns that had not yet been recorded in nature, it had no copulatory lock, multiple intromissions, multiple thrusting, prolonged intromission, and a single ejaculation. This corresponds to copulatory pattern 10 in Dewsbury's scheme (no lock, multiple intromission, thrusting and single ejaculation) and pattern 9 in Dixson's scheme (no lock, multiple intromission, thrusting and prolonged intromission). Detailed behavioral parameters are described for both sexes.